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Military Monday – Samuel Buckley (1886-1966)

Samuel Buckley is my 1st cousin 2x removed. His parents are Prince Buckley and Ada Smith. Our common ancestors are James Buckley and Sarah Tattersall, my 2x great grandparents.

Samuel was born on 28 September 1886 in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

He attended a medical in Halifax, West Yorkshire on 5 July 1916 and enlisted on 9 July 1916. His military service number was 346859.

I can see from his military records on Ancestry that he was “at home: until 1 May 1918 and then he was on board ship from 2 May to 10 May.

Samuel was abroad with the British Expeditionary Force from 11 May 1918 to 24 July 1918. He returned to the UK on 25 July 1918 and spent the rest of his military career at various locations around the country as a fitter.

His military service wasn’t without incident however and there are two misconduct charges in his records.

The first one took place in Edinburgh on 18 January 1917 when he failed to salute an officer in Princes Street. He was confined to barracks for 5 days.

The second incident happened in June 1917 when he was late returning to barracks from a period of leave – he was late by 22 hours 10 minutes and lost 1 days pay.

Samuel was demobilized on 25 February 1919 and transferred to the Class Z Reserve.

Class Z Reserve was authorised by an Army Order of 3 December 1918. There were fears that Germany would not accept the terms of any peace treaty, and therefore the British Government decided it would be wise to be able to quickly recall trained men in the eventuality of the resumption of hostilities. Soldiers who were being demobilised, particularly those who had agreed to serve “for the duration”, were at first posted to Class Z. They returned to civilian life but with an obligation to return if called upon. The Class Z Reserve was abolished on 31 March 1920.